Trump revives Ambler Road; puts $35.6M into Trilogy

President Donald Trump on Monday directed United States agencies to reissue permits for the 340 km Ambler industrial road in northwest Alaska and announced a $35.6 million (C$50 million) federal investment linked to mining exploration.

The executive order, which overturns a 2024 federal rejection and will help fund exploration in the Ambler Mining District, “is in the public interest and will unlock Alaska’s mineral potential by securing domestic supplies of critical minerals,” the White House said in a statement. At an Oval Office ceremony, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said construction could begin as soon as the second quarter next year.

The Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are to reissue authorizations after years of litigation that stalled the project, the White House said. Building the road will allow miners to tap copper, cobalt, gallium and germanium deposits in one of the largest undeveloped copper-zinc belts in the world.

Trilogy Metals (TSX, NYSE American: TMQ) and joint-venture partner South32 (ASX, LSE, JSE: S32) said they signed a binding letter of intent for funding with the U.S. Department of War – with half of the money being used to buy new Trilogy units and the other half to acquire South32 stock.

The deal is to leave the U.S. with about 10% ownership of Vancouver-based Trilogy. It includes low-priced 10-year warrants or options that become exercisable only after the road is built and give the government the right to nominate one independent Trilogy director for three years.

Closing of the transaction is subject to routine approvals and two conditions: reauthorization of the Defense Production Act and completion of a federal Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence review. The letter of intent will terminate if those conditions aren’t met by March 31.

The parties will also negotiate a framework on permitting, financing and construction of the state-sponsored road, with federal help to facilitate road financing and an intent to use the FAST-41 process to expedite any future mine permits at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP). The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority holds the road project.

Stalled project

Federal approvals for Ambler were reversed in 2024 and then mired in court, effectively freezing state and federal permits. Today’s order instructs agencies to reissue them, asserting no “economically feasible and prudent” alternative and underlining securing critical-minerals supply.

The Ambler Road is to open up Trilogy and South32’s UKMP, which is anchored by the Arctic copper-zinc project. Arctic holds a probable reserve base of 46.7 million tonnes grading 2.11% copper, 2.9% zinc, 0.56% lead, 0.42 gram gold per tonne and 31.8 grams silver and underpins a 2023 feasibility study. It has a projected 13-year mine life. The nearby Bornite copper-cobalt system holds 208.9 million tonnes inferred at 1.42% copper for 6.5 million tonnes of the red metal, among other exploration targets.

Opposition

The environmental advocacy group Sierra Club called the move a blow to subsistence communities and wildlife on Monday. The proposed route is to cross Gates of the Arctic National Park and, opponents say, would bisect the Western Arctic Caribou Herd’s migration corridor, causing irreversible damage.

Eighty-nine Tribes and First Nations have passed resolutions opposing the project and communities along the corridor largely oppose the road, the group said.

“Communities along the proposed route of the road have consistently made their voices clear in opposing this damaging project,” Sierra Club’s lands protection director, Athan Manuel, said in a statement. “This order ignores those voices in favour of corporate polluters.”